Past and Present
by 2sidez-Samecoin
Summary: The past catches up to two of Ramza's group as the result of a battle. This was done for the FFT Writing Circle 5th challenge.


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Past and Present

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This is my story for the FFT Writing Circle's fifth challenge. I hope you like it.  
I do not own Final Fantasy Tactics

Opal cried out in pain as an arrow pierced her right shoulder. She lowered her arms, wincing from the pain. Opal cursed silently to herself as she lost the concentration she needed to finish the spell that she was casting. "They've got an archer!" She called out to any of the others that could hear her over the sounds of the battle.

"I see her," Mustadio called back as she lined up a shot. Opal ran over to where he was and looked towards where he was aiming. He fired the shot and it hit the archer in the arm. "That should stop her."

"Good, now it's time for payback..." She smiled maliciously, although no one could see it because of the shadow her hat casts over her face. "Can you run cover for me Musta? I'm going to need a lot of concentration for this one."

"No problem. New spell or a very strong one?"

"A combination of both. I've known it for a little bit, but I've usually considered it overkill." she said as she looked back towards the archer.

"And now...?"

"You know me, I don't like it when I'm interrupted while casting a spell, and she has been hiding all this time. I'm sorry but I'm thoroughly pissed." Mustadio laughed and then shot a thief that was running towards them.

"Do what you got to do Opie. I'll keep anyone from attacking you." He said as he reloaded his gun.

"I knew I could on you." She began gathering energy for the spell, blocking out everything and every sound around her except for the female archer on the roof of the nearby building. Since it was a higher level spell it took a little longer her to gather all the necessary energy. Then she raised her left hand towards the archer. "Inscript the dark god into a rotting body! Flare!" she felt the energy rush from her and felt the air heat up slightly. She saw intense heat waves rising by the archer before it the heat energy exploded. Opal heard her scream and watched her drop dead. She smiled, but then she began to felt light headed and dizzy. Mustadio had just killed a squire that was trying to run Ramza through when he turned towards Opal and noticed that she was swaying slightly.

"Opal are you okay?" he asked as he placed a hand on her arrowless shoulder.

"Oh, I'm fine," she said breathing deeply, "I just can't cast anymore spells for awhile. It was sooo worth it though."

"Alright Opie. The battle is almost over now anyway. Ramza and Agrias are fighting off the last few thieves now." Mustadio smiled at her. Opal reached into her cloak and pulled out her dagger.

"Hey Musta, can you cut off the head of the arrow and pull it out of my shoulder?" she held the dagger out to Mustadio.

"Shouldn't we wait for-"

"I know what you're going to say, but you forget that I was once a chemist. I've told you that before. I can handle it." She still held the

dagger towards him.

"I still think-"

"Yeah, yeah, I know." She looked at him and noticed the pleading look on his face. "Fine, I'll have Papaya heal it okay. I won't do it myself." Mustadio smiled at her and took the dagger. She rolled her eyes and repressed a sigh as he began to cut off the tip of the arrow.

"I'm about to pull the arrow out. You might want to take a deep breath, or not, it's really up to you Opie." Opal closed her eyes.

"Alright let's go." she said as she took a deep breath. Mustadio pulled on the arrow and Opal bit down on her tongue to keep from screaming out in pain. It only took a second to pull it out but to Opal it felt much loner than that and the pain was still intense. She grabbed her shoulder hard and kept pressure on it. Mustadio tossed the arrow aside and looked at her. "This hurts a hell of a lot more than I thought it would." She said through gritted teeth.

"Come on, I think I saw Papaya near the building that looked like a item shop." He looked around again to make sure he was right.

"Wait, here she comes. Hey Papaya! Over here! Code 'W'!" Mustadio smiled and looked at Opal. She sighed and shook her head slightly. Papaya looked towards them and headed their way.

"So Opal needs a ether and she's all out?" she asked Mustadio.

"Wait, what? No, no."

"Although I do need one, but I have one of my own." Opal chimed in.

"Oh I know! I meant to say code 'O'."

"Eww...you Mean Rad and Ophelia are going at it again?" Papaya asked.

"Oh...oh no! I really hope not, not here, that's just..." Mustadio dry heaved and both Opal and Papaya shivered.

"Musta...please..." Opal gagged slightly, "Stop with the code already, I'm afraid to find out what other letters stand for." She turned to

Papaya. "I had an arrow shot in my shoulder, can you heal it for me?"

"Yeah." she turned to Mustadio. "That's a code 'H' Musty. Gee..."

"Right, right. Man, I suck at the code today." Mustadio shrugged and checked his gun. Papaya turned back towards Opal and began to focus some energy.

"Healing breeze, blow in energy! Cure!" Papaya smiled as she felt the energy leave her. Opal shone bright for a moment and then was back to normal. Opal rolled her shoulder a few times.

"Thanks P, that's much better." Opal smiled and Papaya nodded.

"Hey guys, since we are low on supplies and gold, I want all of you to check all the bodies for anything that we can use or sell." Ramza called out. Opal turned to Mustadio and he put his gun back into it holster.

"I'm going up to the roof where that archer was. I just hope I didn't destroy anything we could have used." she said smiling. Mustadio laughed.

"Alright, just be careful." He walked over to one of the bodies that he had sniped during battle. Opal looked towards the building were the archer had been and saw a nice path to the roof where she could climb safely. she walked over to the building stepping over a few of the bodies as she went, deciding that she would come back to look at them afterwards. She looked around briefly and noticed the damage that some of the buildings had sustained during battle. Some had scorch marks from missed spells and sword techniques and some had cracks while others were chipped. She made her way to the roof and looked at the body there was something familiar about her but Opal shrugged it off. She noticed the bow lying not that far from the body. She noticed that her spell broke it and she sighed knowing that it couldn't be sold. Opal picked it up to look at it closer. It looked like it was a high quality bow too. Then something about the bow caught her eye. She noticed a name carved into it and looked at it carefully. Opal dropped the bow. _'No way. Vera...no, this has to be a different girl...'_ She disregarded the bow and walked back to the body. She got that sense of familiarity again but she denied it as looked at the archer. As Opal searched the body she found a couple of potions. Then she noticed a twinkle around the archer's neck. She took the necklace and looked at it. _'This is...oh God...' _ Opal almost puked and she almost threw the necklace away. She placed it in her cloak and finished checking for things they could use. After finding a few gold pieces she climbed down from the roof. Mustadio was at the bottom of the building waiting for her.

"Waiting for me?" she asked.

"Yeah, we finished checking the other bodies already. You find anything good?" he smiled at her. She hesitated as she wondered if he remembered Vera or not. They all had been childhood friends, but she hasn't even told Mustadio that she is the same Opal he knew back in his youth, and it never came up because she never shows her face anymore.

"Just about 50 gold and a few potions." she finally answered.

"Every little bit helps. Come on Ramza has already led the others to our camping spot for tonight." He began walking in the direction the others had left in a few minutes ago. Opal took one last look at the rooftop and her heart ached slightly. Then she turned away and began to follow Mustadio. They talked briefly as they walked, Mustadio told her the things he had found on some of the bodies. He was excited because he had found a better gun than the one he was using. She laughed at his eagerness and knew that it would eventually mean another trip back to Goug. They caught up to the others they had found a partial clearing near the town to camp. Most of the tents were already set up and wood for the campfire had already been gathered. Mustadio went to help set up the rest of the tents as Ramza called Opal over to start the campfire. After she did that she walked a distance from the group and sat with her back against a tree. Opal took out the necklace and held it in the palm of her hand. As she stared at the jewel the memories of their childhood began to flow back to her. Mustadio finished helping with the tents he went over to the campfire. He took out his newly acquired gun and began to polish it. He looked around at some of the others. "Come on guys, cheer up! We live to fight another day!" Some of the others chuckled at his optimism, but were able to see his point. He smiled and went back to polishing his gun. Opal took a look at the others before closing her hand over the jewel tightly, closing her eyes, and leaning back against the tree. She let herself be immersed in her memories of when they were younger.

* * *

"So what do you think Opal?" her friend asked with a smile on her face. 

"That sounds fun Vera!" Opal said smiling back. They looked around the streets of Goug giggling slightly. The streets were a little more empty than usual that day, but it was a nice day out.

"You think Musty will want to join us?"

"It's an adventure, of course he will!" Opal turned slightly spotting Mustadio out of the corner of her eye. "Speaking of Musta, there he is. Hey Mu-" Vera covered Opal's mouth and pulled her back behind a nearby building.

"Wait! There's one more thing I want to tell you." She said as she looked around the corner of the building. When she saw the Mustadio hadn't noticed them she removed her hand from Opal's mouth.

"Did you have to cover my mouth though?" she asked as she wiped her mouth.

"Yeah, because I don't want Musty to hear this yet. I-I..."

"What is it Vera? What's wrong?" Vera laughed slightly.

"There's nothing wrong. It's just that I...I like him."

"No way! You mean," Opal paused and looked around, "...you like him, like him?" she said her voice slightly lower than before. Vera nodded. "When are you going to tell him?"

"I-I'm...not going to. I'm too shy to tell him."

"Alright, well let's see if he's still out there and ask if he wants to join us on our adventure." Vera nodded and they walked out from behind the building.

"Cool. He's still over there. Hey Mustadio! Over here! We have..."

* * *

Opal suddenly got the chills and opened her eyes. She opened her hand and looked at the necklace again. Then looking at Mustadio she shook her head. It was hard for her to believe that he was the same as he'd been when they were younger. She noticed how dark it was getting and that usually meant that food would be served soon, but she didn't move. At the moment though Opal didn't really care. She noticed that the others didn't really realize that she was away from camp. Opal sighed and continued to relive her memories.

* * *

Opal got to Vera's house to see her crying on her steps. "What's wrong Vera?" Vera looked up at her and stood up.

"This is your fault Opal." she said wiping away tears. Opal looked at her shocked.

"Wait, what? What do you mean?"

"You told him didn't you?" she said as she walked over to Opal.

"What do...wait, you mean Mustadio?" Vera nodded. "I thought I was helping. When you told me last week you said you were to shy to

tell him yourself."

"Yes, but I didn't want you to tell him, and he-he doesn't feel the same way." Vera began to cry harder. "I trusted you...and you...you betrayed me."

"Vera I'm, Im sorry..." she walked over to her and placed a hand on her shoulder. Vera shrugged her hand off and moved away from her. "Vera..."

"Stay away from me! I...I don't want to see you ever again..." Vera turned her back on Opal and began walking back towards her house.

"You...you don't mean that do you?" she asked, her voice breaking slightly. She walked towards Vera but stopped when she turned around.

"Yes, and take," she paused as she started to take her necklace off, "your stupid necklace back." She got it off and was about to throw it at Opal when a thought occurred to her. "No wait, on second thought I'll keep it. Mustadio did help pick it out. Just go."

* * *

"Hey Opie, are you okay? Whatcha doing over here by yourself?" Mustadio asked. Opal looked up at him and then glanced down at the ground ashamed. She wondered if she should tell him everything. 

"I'm just been doing some thinking."

"What about? You seem so melancholy."

"I...I knew that archer...and...and...you did too..." she started to reach for her hat.

"Wait...what? How would you know that?" Opal took off her hat and looked at him. She used her free had to summon a small flame

and brought it towards her face.

"I don't know if I look the same as when we were younger, but we used to hang out a lot...along with another girl." Mustadio looked confused for a moment, but then it slowly faded as things started to come back to him. Opal brought the flame down to her other hand and showed him the necklace. "Does this look familiar to you?" He looked at it for a few moments.

"It kinda looks like it's been chipped of a zodiac stone..."

"Well, do you remember a girl named Vera? You helped me pick out this stone for the necklace to give to her for her birthday." Mustadio sat down beside her and looked at the necklace even closer. Then he looked at her.

"Wait...you used to wear your hair curly all the time didn't you?" She nodded. "And Vera always had pigtails." Opal nodded again. Mustadio sighed and looked at the towards the campfire. "Wow...so that archer, that was Vera?"

"Yes. I wonder if she still hated me." she said as looked towards the others.

"For what?"

"For telling you that she liked you liked you. Didn't you ever wonder why the three of us stopped meeting a lot as a trio after that? Well, that was why."

"Oh, I think I see why you came over here to be by yourself. Opie...what's done is done. You've just got to keep on moving forward.

Come on it's almost chow time." He smiled at her and stood up. She extinguished the flame in her hand and put her hat back on. She

put the necklace in her cloak and stood up.

"Before we join the others, can I ask you something?"

"Yeah, sure."

"Why didn't you like, like Vera? If you can remember that is."

"Because, I liked someone else." He said as he began walking back towards the campfire.


End file.
